Nearly one million people have been displaced by the ongoing military operation against Taliban militants in northwestern Swat valley of Pakistan. Most of the IDPs are living in tents set up in adjoining districts in harsh conditions with inadequate facilities.
Officials say some 700 militants have been killed in the military offensive, but hundreds of thousands of more citizens remain stranded in Swat valley because of fighting, curfews and lack of transport. This is the largest internal displacement in Pakistan since August 1947, when the country was carved out of India after independence from British rule.
The fighting began last month in Swat after militants dishonoured a peace deal between pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad and the government of North West Frontier Province to end a two-year bloody conflict for imposition of Islamic sharia in the valley. The military says that there are some 4,000 to 5,000 battle hardened militants in Swat valley and it is using helicopter gunships, fighter jets, armored and artillery against them.
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